The Fault in Our Stars- My Thoughts

I need to preface this review-of-sorts with a few things:

1. I don't read YA. Like I really, really, really don't read YA.

2. I'm not a fan of overly-sappy books.

3. I listened to this on Audible.

4. I decided to give this book a fair chance because of the movie coming out, the fact that some people I truly respect like it, and because I felt a smidge bad telling probably forty students they couldn't read it for outside reading over the past few years.

5. We can still be friends if you like it.

There are some popular books I refuse to touch, the Twilight series and Fifty Shades of Grey being examples. Other books I've given into the hype about and have come up with mixed feelings, such as These Lovely Bones, The Casual Vacancy, The Hunger Games and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series. After the aforementioned reason number four, I decided to give John Green's The Fault in Our Stars a try.

First off, I will say that I have an inkling that it probably is one of the better written, or at least thought-out, YA books. There are some heavy themes dealing with life and death (and supposedly existentialism... ha!) that can at least get people to question their own mortality and I appreciated that he handled the love story aspect pretty tastefully. Yes, they're teenagers, so there are lines about how Augustus is "hot" and the normal back and forth "do I like him?" nonsense that I see every day at work. I also must say that John Green seems like a decent guy, after listening to the interview at the end of the audiobook, as well as from his preface and afterward.

All in all, I don't think this is a literary book by any means (and I know most people don't necessarily consider it one, but I have heard the argument that for YA it is literary), nor did I really enjoy it. First of all, it was beyond sappy. I swear, there was crying by one character or another on at least half (or more) of the pages. I know, I know, cancer is sad. But still, the level of weepy drama was too much. Hazel's poor dad's only purpose in this text is to cry. I hope they buy Kleenex at Costco in bulk, for crap's sake. While I thought Hazel's character was slightly more realistic, there were times with Augustus Waters was just too much- I work with teenagers all day, every day and while I have no doubt he was one smart cookie, I just felt like he was often a bit unrealistic. The writing was absolutely mediocre and at times, from what I can tell from listening to the audiobook, anyway, the script aspect was annoying ("Mom: blablabla Me: blablabla").

The lesser characters were quite flat, and some of their little subplots were just so underdeveloped and seemed to be an afterthought (I don't want to give anything away, just in case I was in fact not the last person on the planet to be exposed to this book). The entire premise of going to the Netherlands to seek out an author without really solidifying any plans seems a bit contrived. I did appreciate how drunk and crazy he was, though. His reappearance later in the novel at an event that I will not divulge made me laugh out loud. Sure he'd really attend. Suuuuuuure. And I'm sorry, the obsession those two have with the ending is just ridiculous. It's not even that big of a cliffhanger.

Oh, and I thought the ending was extremely predictable. Green was obviously trying not to come across this way, but in his attempt to mislead the reader throughout he ended up being obvious. I felt that as a whole he did try a bit too hard with this text; there's isn't a natural flow to it.

I completely and understand the draw people have to it; it has the teenage angst that some people love, it has travel, it has a love story, it has drama, it has tragedy. For me, it simply did not work. 

You loved it, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?!?! Tell me why.